they are not in washington, d.c. the house of representatives are not here. they couldn't even get the leadership together yesterday. they had to do it with a teleconference. republican leadership. we go over the cliff, we will be left with the knowledge that could have been prevented with a single vote and the republican-controlled house of representatives. speaker, prior to this session starting today, the presiding officer and i had a conversation about how things have changed around here. i served in the house of representatives. there's 435 members of the house. what goes on in this country shouldn't be decided by the majority. it should be decided by the whole house of representatives. everyone knows, including the speaker of the house house of representatives today, that if they had brought the house -- i'm sorry, the senate-passed bill that would give relief to everyone making less than $250,000 a year, it would pass overwhelmingly. every democratic would vote for it and republicans would vote for it. but the speaker, he says no, we can't do that t ha